Dataset Information

Effect of X-ray free-electron laser-induced shockwaves on haemoglobin microcrystals delivered in a liquid jet.

ABSTRACT: X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enable obtaining novel insights in structural biology. The recently available MHz repetition rate XFELs allow full data sets to be collected in shorter time and can also decrease sample consumption. However, the microsecond spacing of MHz XFEL pulses raises new challenges, including possible sample damage induced by shock waves that are launched by preceding pulses in the sample-carrying jet. We explored this matter with an X-ray-pump/X-ray-probe experiment employing haemoglobin microcrystals transported via a liquid jet into the XFEL beam. Diffraction data were collected using a shock-wave-free single-pulse scheme as well as the dual-pulse pump-probe scheme. The latter, relative to the former, reveals significant degradation of crystal hit rate, diffraction resolution and data quality. Crystal structures extracted from the two data sets also differ. Since our pump-probe attributes were chosen to emulate EuXFEL operation at its 4.5 MHz maximum pulse rate, this prompts concern about such data collection.

SUBMITTER: Grunbein ML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7960726 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Effect of X-ray free-electron laser-induced shockwaves on haemoglobin microcrystals delivered in a liquid jet.

Grünbein Marie Luise ML Gorel Alexander A Foucar Lutz L Carbajo Sergio S Colocho William W Gilevich Sasha S Hartmann Elisabeth E Hilpert Mario M Hunter Mark M Kloos Marco M Koglin Jason E JE Lane Thomas J TJ Lewandowski Jim J Lutman Alberto A Nass Karol K Nass Kovacs Gabriela G Roome Christopher M CM Sheppard John J Shoeman Robert L RL Stricker Miriam M van Driel Tim T Vetter Sharon S Doak R Bruce RB Boutet Sébastien S Aquila Andrew A Decker Franz Josef FJ Barends Thomas R M TRM Stan Claudiu Andrei CA Schlichting Ilme I

Nature communications 20210315 1

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enable obtaining novel insights in structural biology. The recently available MHz repetition rate XFELs allow full data sets to be collected in shorter time and can also decrease sample consumption. However, the microsecond spacing of MHz XFEL pulses raises new challenges, including possible sample damage induced by shock waves that are launched by preceding pulses in the sample-carrying jet. We explored this matter with an X-ray-pump/X-ray-probe experiment emp ...[more]

PMID: 33723266

Similar Datasets

Project description:X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) can probe chemical and biological reactions as they unfold with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. A principal challenge in this pursuit involves the delivery of samples to the X-ray interaction point in such a way that produces data of the highest possible quality and with maximal efficiency. This is hampered by intrinsic constraints posed by the light source and operation within a beamline environment. For liquid samples, the solution typically involves some form of high-speed liquid jet, capable of keeping up with the rate of X-ray pulses. However, conventional jets are not ideal because of radiation-induced explosions of the jet, as well as their cylindrical geometry combined with the X-ray pointing instability of many beamlines which causes the interaction volume to differ for every pulse. This complicates data analysis and contributes to measurement errors. An alternative geometry is a liquid sheet jet which, with its constant thickness over large areas, eliminates the problems related to X-ray pointing. Since liquid sheets can be made very thin, the radiation-induced explosion is reduced, boosting their stability. These are especially attractive for experiments which benefit from small interaction volumes such as fluctuation X-ray scattering and several types of spectroscopy. Although their use has increased for soft X-ray applications in recent years, there has not yet been wide-scale adoption at XFELs. Here, gas-accelerated liquid sheet jet sample injection is demonstrated at the European XFEL SPB/SFX nano focus beamline. Its performance relative to a conventional liquid jet is evaluated and superior performance across several key factors has been found. This includes a thickness profile ranging from hundreds of nanometres to 60 nm, a fourfold increase in background stability and favorable radiation-induced explosion dynamics at high repetition rates up to 1.13 MHz. Its minute thickness also suggests that ultrafast single-particle solution scattering is a possibility.

Dataset Information

Effect of X-ray free-electron laser-induced shockwaves on haemoglobin microcrystals delivered in a liquid jet.

Publications

Effect of X-ray free-electron laser-induced shockwaves on haemoglobin microcrystals delivered in a liquid jet.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets